I thought I'd post some photos from our duck club as the season goes on. Over the years, I've had the good fortune to share many wonderful duck hunts with family and friends, but have never taken the opportunity to capture those moments in photographs like I should have.

I've been a partner in the same club, the Sanborn Slough Club, for 33 seasons. I'm planning to post occasional photos of our hunts on the club, and of the Butte Sink. I hope you all enjoy.

We decided to make our first hunt down at a blind in the trees, as my first guests of the year have not hunted wood ducks before, and this blind is very consistent for them and mallards.



They had a good morning, hadn't hunted out of a platform blind before.



And they did OK, even though they weren't used to shooting in timber.



Time to go

This morning, I went out for the 2nd time this season, taking my two best hunting partners, my son Danny and 12 year old Black Lab, Cody.



The birds weren't flying much today, we only took a pair of drake wood ducks, but it didn't matter. Time with my son, which is less common now that he's a bit older, and my dog, who is probably in her last season, are always special.

Cool pics, and thanks for sharing. I am a bit confused by your comment about not being used to shooting in timber, however. I'd probably have told them what I tell any noobs I take ducking, be it on the ocean, marsh, flooded timber, swamp, slough, lake, pond, river, creeek, bog or other: "when you've got the shot, take it!"

What I meant (but didn't elaborate on) was that they are used to hunting in flooded rice fields, which are wide open and you can see the birds coming from a long way out. In the timber, especially with the woodies, the shooting can come fast and furious, as they come twisting in around the trees and appear rather suddenly sometimes. You only get a brief time to mount, swing and shoot. Guys who aren't used to that often have trouble hitting birds.

Went out this morning and forgot the camera. Hunting wasn't too good as we're in the 'November doldrums' and need some weather to stir up the birds or bring new birds into the valley. Oh well, had a nice morning with my son and a good buddy and our two labs.

quote:

Originally posted by DLS:
What I meant (but didn't elaborate on) was that they are used to hunting in flooded rice fields, which are wide open and you can see the birds coming from a long way out. In the timber, especially with the woodies, the shooting can come fast and furious, as they come twisting in around the trees and appear rather suddenly sometimes. You only get a brief time to mount, swing and shoot. Guys who aren't used to that often have trouble hitting birds.

Went out this morning and forgot the camera. Hunting wasn't too good as we're in the 'November doldrums' and need some weather to stir up the birds or bring new birds into the valley. Oh well, had a nice morning with my son and a good buddy and our two labs.

I was mostly just busting your chops, but I understand what you mean. Here, if taking folks out teal hunting in the salt marsh, I'll tell them that you're going to have probably less than 3 seconds between the time you see them at first and when you can get any shot(s) off. With seaducks, especially late in the season, people who know them and their body language, one can tell if they're going to commit (wait), or they have no intention of coming in and the 40 yard L > R crosser is the best you;'re going to get, so you best cut loose if you're gonna'...Oh, and lead the heck out of those eider, cause for such large suckers they can move, especially in a stiff tailwind. Just ask the guy shooting at this bull common...

Hey thanks a lot for the great pictures. I used to spend a ton of time in that country and really got a kick out of your post. Please add photos as time allows. Have a great season!

I haven't been out hunting ducks lately, as we've had very calm weather for the most part, and not a lot of ducks have migrated down from Oregon yet. That started changing last week with some cold storms up north, so I took a fellow out yesterday who'd never hunted in a marsh the way we do it. He's a lifelong duck hunter, but does all his hunting from a scull boat. The hunting wasn't very good, but the company was great.

Steve Cooksey, from Eureka, CA with the Sutter Buttes in distant background.


Cody, my nearly 13 year old Black Lab, bringing back one of our birds



Steve with a nice pair of Greenwing drakes

Nice. I love hearing about and seeing pics from waterfowlers from the often wildly different areas we hunt. Thanks for sharing.

BTW, what kind of scull rig does the gent run?

He built his own scull boat, nearly 30 years ago if I remember correctly. He said it is 14 1/2" long.

DLS,

great pics of a great area; we lease a club in the Sink and I'm part owner of 2 others in nearby areas... the Sink is certainly the most beautiful area around to hunt ducks in, if not the most productive as well. I don't know about your club, but ours haven't produced squat this year or the last few, seems to be a trend

great pics and good hunting,

Regards,
Craig Nolan

Hunting has been very slow, but we just got a cold snap, with record cold temps for our area. The low this morning was 24 degrees, which while not that cold for much of the country, is a record for this date in Sacramento. We're hunting tomorrow, and just hope that we can get out to the blinds since the marsh is likely frozen completely solid.
I'll have a report with pictures after we get back.

The birds have finally shown up. I hunted both days last weekend, and there are a lot of new birds in the valley. Lots of geese in the fields, new flocks of teal, wigeon and lot of ringed neck ducks all over the place. We hunted in my least favorite weather of all, rain with no wind, just straight down rain. I took my son and a friend each day, and we shot about 30 birds total.


On the left is my son's friend Jake, and my son Danny on the right. I took this photo on a different hunt earlier in the week when it was sunny. Jake is a great young man. He just returned home a few months ago after serving nearly a year in Iraq, and will be deployed to Afghanistan late next summer. For now, he's enjoying some idle time and getting into duck hunting in a big way.


This is kinda like that photo that Camo Gari has of the guy shooting way behind a sea duck. Jake was several feet behind the duck he was shooting at, which is behind the tules on the right in this picture.


End of the day. Ducks all picked and draining, and Danny holding something that is definitely NOT a duck.


Nothing better than fresh duck livers to catch some of the nice channel cats that lurk in the slough that runs past our clubhouse. He returned this nice cat, like he does with nearly every fish he catches.

One thing that I do each year is donate several duck hunts to groups that I like to support, for their fundraising efforts. Over the years, I've donated hunts to Ducks Unlimited, California Waterfowl Assoc, California Deer Assoc and especially lately, Sacramento State, UC Davis and St. Mary's College's baseball teams. This past Friday and Saturday, I had the pleasure of taking out John Nichol and his father, Bernie, on one of these hunts. John purchased the hunt at UC Davis's baseball fundraiser, and brought his 81 year old father out with him. Bernie had not been duck hunting in 10 years, since selling his duck club membership. John only goes duck hunting a time or two per season, so it was a speical opportunity for the two of them, and a very enjoyable time for me as well. We hunted Friday afternoon and yesterday morning.

Here's Bernie at sunset on Friday afternoon.


And with his son, John, yesterday morning.


Jonn and Jax, my 'rent a lab.' Jax is owned by a good buddy of mine, and I like to bring him out with us even whenever possible.

We're starting to see a lot of geese around our area, which usually means we'll start getting good specklebelly shooting soon.

Enjoyed the pics guys, thanks for posting!

Things have definitely changed over to full winter mode. There are no leaves on any of the trees, and it is now cold and wet most of the time, classic late season conditions. With no storms and the big moon, hunting has been slow but I had the wonderful pleasure of taking out a special guest these last few days. He's a young man who grew up with my son, and who had his life on a seriously wrong track for a few years. He got himself cleaned up and he joined the Marine Corps last June. He finished basic training at Camp Pendleton and is now stationed at Camp Lejuenne, North Carolina. He was home for about a week over Christmas, so I took him duck hunting a couple times, and it was probably even better for me than it was for Michael.


Late afternoon


My old Lab, Cody, retrieving a bird that Mike shot, as it turned out his last bird of the season


Mike the Marine and his last duck of this season, nice way to finish it!


Heading back toward home...

Mike will finish his training in a few months and be deployed overseas this spring. Taking him hunting for a few days was my way of congratulating him for turning his life around and going in such a positive direction, and for saying "thank you for your service." He's become a fine young man, one to be very proud of.

Tomorrow, I'm taking out two teenagers who've never been hunting. They are coming along as observers, hopefully they'll leave as aspiring duck hunters.